I’ve been assured that it’s “normal for boys” – though I have certainly met a few exceptions to that stereotype.  But my two HATE to color.  And just in case I was starting to think it might be time to reintroduce the concept, I got two great reminders, this past week, of what happens when they’re “made” to.

Our Russia-study wrap-up party was last Thursday. (Every time we study a country, we get together with four other families and have a party.) And one of the Russia-party activities was to color (shudder) a set of matryoshka (nesting) dolls.  While I watched my friend’s same-aged daughter not only neatly color in the lines but also embellish the front of her dolls dresses with a hand-drawn flower on each (and yes, she matched all her dolls), here’s what one of my guys came up with.  (Apparently, in addition to a general ignoring of lines, he also believes women should be seen and not heard?  Where’d their mouths go?)

And then yesterday, as I was picking them up from their kindergarten class at church, I glanced at the papers their teacher handed me.

“José, what a great job you did, coloring!”  (And for him, this is.)

“Not me, Mama” ‘Berto chirped up.  “I drawed a Darth Maul.  And there’s me at the bottom with an axe, so I can kill him and climb up to the next level.  And I gived Jesus glasses.”

And indeed, all of those things ARE on his page.  With a few brown scribbles in the middle that I’m guessing happened because his teacher was standing over him and telling him he “should” color.  Hopefully his teacher has a sense of humor because it does rather appear like Satan is hovering over Jesus’ shoulder.  

We may be getting kicked out of Sunday School.

P.S. Did I mention we’re obsessed with Star Wars in this house?

It’s been quite the snow storm here in Maryland, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get out of our driveway, let alone on a plane to El Salvador tomorrow morning, but turns out I will!

This blessing has been brought to me by some heavy construction equipment and one very stubborn airline that refused to cancel its flights even though almost all the others did, and BWI airport is supposedly “closed.”

So “Thank You, Mr. Front-end Loader” and “Thank You, Delta.”  Also a big thank you to Fred and a nice neighbor, Donny, who cleared a little car’s-width trail with me down our court so that we COULD get out in the morning if we had to.  We’d like to think the county road guy appreciated our help.

And now it’s off to bed with me, since I have to be at the airport at 4:30 a.m.  Groan.  But in an excited-to-be-going-after-all kind of way.

For those who have or plan to donate to Haiti-relief organizations, the IRS has issued a special tax provision to allow you to deduct your cash donations on your 2009 Tax Return.  The provision includes those texted-in donations the Red Cross and many other organizations collected.  The law does not apply to property or goods donations.

Donations need to be itemized on your “Schedule A” when you file, and they must have been contributed to Haiti relief after January 11th and before March 1st, 2010.

If you haven’t yet donated or would like to donate again, the IRS website has an online version of their Publication 78 that can give you a list of local charities or verify that donations to your organization of choice qualify as tax-deductible. 

Outpouring from the U.S. has, as usual, surpassed that of any other country in the world.  But the people of Haiti are still reeling and have a long road to recovery ahead of them.  So if you need one more incentive to give, here it is!

One of the things the boys have to do in their co-op class every Wednesday is give a brief oral presentation to the class.  The general category is assigned, but they can pick anything that fits.  So for “Favorite Things” week:

Favorite Movie (also pictured: ”Favorite Shirt” – somebody wears it every day it’s clean!)

Favorite New Toy

Oh yes we’re obsessed with Star Wars in this house!

Well it’s been nearly 3 weeks since my last post, but I would like to beg “good excuse.”  Not so much “the holidays” as “Fred and I undertook a bit of a large home-project, and I’m only just recovering.”

Since we knew he’d be off the week between Christmas and New Years, we decided we’d use that time to paint the first floor of our house all one neutral color.   

That, of course (if you know us at all well), led to “well why don’t we just take out the walls and bulkheads we want to remove before we bother to paint the whole place?”

‘Cause that’s not over-committing or anything.

And so we did.

And one week, two dump runs and one trip to the E.R. with a kid who decided to stick his finger down into the wheel area of the cart at Home Depot (not recommended, as it turns out) later? 

We don’t have walls where we didn’t want them, most of the first floor (minus where we’re still patching and sanding) is painted a neutral color, and every single piece of furniture has moved to a new location.

But it’s cozy, and we like it.  And if you count daily impact, the best thing of all is that there is now one designated school room for the boys.  No more “homeschool supplies take over the whole house” feeling. 

But it was a little hard on the blog.

Back now, though.  And I hope you all had great holidays!

Before:

After:

(Will post more pix after Fred’s post on his blog runs… don’t want to steal his thunder!) 

Some of the best pix from this past (fantastic!) snowy almost-winter weekend:

Nature-Made Finishing Touches on the Christmas Decor

Hard-Workin’ Man

… His Shiftless Wife-n-Kids “Chillaxin’” …

Part Camel?  (the down-side to those amazing lashes)

Theodore Roosevelt: “Speak softly…”

… and I am thankful for the two little artists featured above, a great hubby, siblings who are among my best friends, other great friends, our home, our neighborhood, and all the many other blessings I sometimes forget to appreciate in the process of living life.

Gracias, Señor.

I picked this day before Thanksgiving to focus again on a goal I wrote down at the beginning of the year:  To be “occupied with gladness of heart.”

I’m a journal-er and a planner.  At any time, I can look back and read where I’ve been; and I get all excited about trying to figure out what’s coming next in life.  But spending the bulk of my time focusing on either will cause me to miss what’s happening right now.

And if I get into the habit, I could lose a lot of “nows” before I realize it.  Once gone, there’s no getting them back.  Enough wise people I respect have told me that. 

So as I prep the turkey for tonight’s dinner with my side of the family and execute on all the details I set in motion weeks ago, I’m keeping both my literal and my mental cameras close at hand.  I can’t promise that I won’t “reflect on the days of my life” at all, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am reminding myself of how much I have for which to be grateful today.   It’s enough to keep my mind and my heart full!

Our family’s adoption story started before we were a family.  Fred and I hadn’t met yet and wouldn’t for 4 more years.  I was a college student with three younger living siblings and a younger brother who had died shortly after birth.  Still trying for that second boy, my parents decided to adopt.

Enter my youngest brother, born in Guatemala, united with our family at 7 months old.

I was 21 when he came home, so he doesn’t even remember the time when I lived in our parents house.  He vaguely remembers my first house and coming over for sleepovers when he was 3 and 4 years old. 

He doesn’t remember a time when Fred wasn’t part of our lives, but he does know that he’s the one who gave him his nickname.  When Steven and Fred first met, Steven had never heard of the name ‘Fred,” but he knew Fred was my friend, a word he did know, so he assumed that was his name and called him “Fwend.” The nickname has stuck.

So when “Fwend” and I started talking marriage and family, we had this little 4 year old in our lives who was living proof that adoption was a great thing.  We didn’t love Steven any less or any differently than any of our other siblings, so we realized it didn’t matter to us whether our own kids were biological ones or not.  In fact, we thought, we’d like some of each – maybe two bio-kids and two kids by adoption.

After a year and a half of marriage, we switched the order and decided to adopt first, then have biological children.  We looked at all the options, and it came down to Guatemala and two other programs.  The choice from there was easy.  Why would we not give our kids and our kid-brother family members from the same country?

So we began our Guatemalan adoption in late 2005.  We brought the twins home in January of 2007, and just as I had hoped, my boys and my little brother are very good friends.  As it turns out, Steven and H & J are only 5 1/2 years apart in age – closer in age than Steven is to any of our siblings.  He’s enough older that the twins think he’s super cool and will do just about anything he says.  But he’s young enough that he still thinks they’re fun to play with.  Many a video game hour has been logged with the three of them sitting in a row on our couch.  It’s a beautiful thing, so normalizing for all three of them that they have the same story.

And so last year, when Fred and I found out we have a fertility issue that would make the “have two” portion of our family plan a real challenge, we needed only look at our photo album to know what to do.  Adoption has been in my family for 10 years and in Fred’s and mine the whole time we’ve been together.  So we’re adopting again, and again from Central America.  Turns out we have a thing for little Latinos. 

Looking forward, now, to when we have two more handsome or beautiful tan faces to add to this bunch.